Still at it!

Haven't blogged in a long time, mainly due to trying to keep up with our two year old, remodeling our home, working an actual job whenever possible, moving into a new place we are renting from some friends, starting a silk screening endeavor, and trying to work out in hopes of getting back into running some triathlons this summer...not much.

My Gitche Gumee Inked project is just about complete, I am 3/4 finished with the sixth and final drawing. I grossly underestimated the time it would take me to complete it, I foolishly estimated the time as if I were still a single carefree artist with no children, big difference! The final drawings in this series have really turned out the way I had hoped, and I am really excited to reveal them to the public and all my gracious Kick-starter backers.

Fatherhood has proven to be a tricky little hurdle in trying to get some good drawing time accomplished. I stay home with Vivian three to four days a week in the winter, which used to be my prime drawing time adding new pieces to my collection, but though I've tried to draw while Vivi plays, it's not possible to meticulously place thousands of ink dots in the correct locations while a two year old is eating out of the dogs food dish or taking off her poopy diaper and trying to create some of her own interpretive art! I am able to get in maybe an hour and a half to two hours if I'm lucky during nap time. I thought that when mommy gets home and dinner is done and Vivi goes night night, daddy would be able to do some nice quiet drawing, but, by that time of night, "Daddy" is so exhausted from trying to keep his two year old safe and happy all day, all he wants to do is have a few beers and stare blankly into the television (to the dismay of mommy)!

Silk screening is my new side project that is  taking up some more of my time. Debbie, had a little side business when we met dealing with t shirt design and baby clothes, and it really caught my interest, so I came up with a few designs and placed them on Etsy and I've sold a few shirts here and there, then this December, Jason DeRusha of WCCO t.v. featured some of my shirts on his favorite things for the holidays, and bingo, I was flooded with orders! I am going to try to work a few summer art shows with my silk screening items, stay tuned for details.

So basically, I still have a problem focussing on one career path, when all is said and done, my true love is still and always will be pen & ink drawing! I am looking forward to getting back to my stipple roots and creating several dog portraits as soon as I complete my last Gitche Gumee Inked drawing, I'm grateful for all the talent GOD has given me but, kind of wish he would have blessed me with the ability to be a CPA instead...just saying!

Thanks to anyone who may have actually read this, until next time,

Rob

New Direction?

The Gitche Gumee Inked project does not look like it's going to come to fruition, I'm a little over half way to my goal with only a week to go, if I don't get the funding for it, I am going to shelve it for a while and focus on my portrait work. I've attached a short time lapse video of my last dog portrait, it's rough, but it was my first attempt at doing this type of thing. I think I will do this for all my future drawings, it really shows the process I use to create my work!
http://kck.st/AshYrs

I am also messing around with the concept of doing some drawings of Twin Cities landmarks, more to come on that!

Thanks for reading!

Rob

Clock is Ticking!

I  finally was able to get my proposal for my long-term project, "Gitche Gumee Inked" up and running on the Kickstarter website. I have 35 days to get the necessary funding needed to get the ball rolling on this endeavor, so I need you to pass this link onto everyone you know, this thing has to go viral! The more money raised the quicker I can get the project completed. The end result will be a book with prints of all the original drawings and photographs & notes from the making of it, should be fun!

The link with all the "Gitche Gumee Inked" details is;

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stipplefreak/gitche-gumee-inked

I'm on the verge of going back to work with my brother in law Tom, so my drawing time will be somewhat limited, but, I am almost done with my second drawing since January and hopefully I'll be able to keep my creative momentum rolling. I am not planning to do any Art shows this summer, so that will allow me more time to work on my "Gitche Gumme Inked" series.

Fatherhood has been getting easier, it's still a work in progress, but Vivi is the cutest, smartest baby in the world of course! She is being patient with mommy & daddy, but I think we are doing something right, because she seems happy as a baby can be!!

Thanks for reading, make sure to spread the word on the "Gitche Gumee Inked" project!!

Rob the Stipplefreak

Grinding along

Over the last few weeks I've kind of gotten more into of a "drawing" mode, considering all the distractions around my home, I guess that's the best I can hope for! I was able to finish my very overdue commission picture for a VERY patient customer, the drawing turned out fairly well, and my customer liked it, so that is good!

I have also started a new portrait and I'm filming the whole drawing process and will post the finished video when I'm done. It's going to be in time lapse photography, so the entire drawing process which will take about 20 hours, will be shown in a few minutes, it's my first attempt at this, so the first video is a little rough. From now on, I will record all drawings in this fashion, it really gives you a great look at my drawing technique!

I am leaving tomorrow, Friday Feb. 24th, with my buddy Robert to do some filming and photo studies for my long term project documenting Lake Superior which I've named, "Gitche Gumee Inked". The first leg of this project will cover Duluth, MN to Grand Portage, MN.  There will be four parts of the project that will be broken up into geographical segments of Lake Superior, I will do six original drawings from each segment, 24 drawings in all. Once the entire project is complete, I estimate about four years, they will be displayed at a gallery to be named soon. I plan on launching the details on how people can "pre purchase" prints and fund this project in April, so watch for that!

As for "fatherhood," Vivi is the cutest baby ever, but dang, she is a handful and she only weighs 13lbs, I think it gets easier though right?! She's a very boisterous audience when I'm drawing and she is a very early riser, about 4-5am every morning, that's not my ideal waking time! I wouldn't change a thing though, it's a "good" kind of exhaustion we're dealing with!

Thanks for reading,

Back to the Drawing Board

 

My live audience!

I've finally gotten back on a "drawing" schedule after about a three month adjustment period getting used to parenthood. It took longer than I had thought, but, Vivi and I have come to an agreement where she will let me work for unspecified amounts of time until she decides it is time to eat or be changed, or she just wants my undivided attention, I've learned to accept her conditions, because she is SO darn cute!!

The hard thing is now that I've gotten into a groove drawing again, it's time for me to go back to work with my bro-in-law's roofing company, we are starting a large project on Lake of the Isles this week. Now I'll really have to be disciplined if I want to keep my progress going with my art AND day job AND baby, man, life just keeps testing my commitment to my art, if anyone wants to give me a large grant, I'd appreciate it!!

I am restructuring, "The Lake Superior Project", and getting ready to release the details, in a nutshell, the finished project will still be the same, 24 original pieces chosen from various subjects around Lake Superior, the main difference from my last proposal will be that I am breaking the project up into six geographical segments, so people can pick areas they are more interested in as far as financial backing goes. I hope to have the final proposal and video posted on my Kickstarter site within the next month or two, stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, and make sure to steer your friends to my sites!

Rob

Jump Started!?

I just got back from an appearance/demonstration at the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia, MN where my work is on display until the end of January. I was pleasantly surprised by the good turnout! There were several people there who were really interested in my art and the process in which I use to create it, I had several great questions during the demonstration & got a lot of encouraging feedback form the people who attended! It was also great to have Debbie & Vivi there to support me, (although Vivi upstaged me a bit)!

I really have to thank Mary McReynolds-Pellinen for spearheading the event, I think I should make her my PR person! In addition to all the local press on my appearance, I was interviewed by Travis Ryder of KAXE 91.7, public radio from Grand Rapids after the event and will be doing a television interview with a Duluth station on Monday.

All of this recent attention has lit a fire under me to make more of an effort to start working on some new pieces that I have been wanting to do for some time, but have been putting off. I just have to suck it up and MAKE time to do what I love!!

Thanks for reading, hope to post some new work in progress next time!

Good Intentions!

Debbie went back to work this week and I have a couple weeks where I plan on getting some quality drawing time in, but, it's going to be tougher than I planned! Trying to focus on creating an intricate drawing composed of hundreds of thousands tiny points of ink while my six week old is screaming and one year old puppy is stealing her nook and socks and begging to go out and play catch with the tennis ball, is not working! I am going to have to figure something out before my beard goes totally gray!

I have a long list of new projects I'm chomping at the bit to start, along with trying to finish the few commissions which are extremely overdue and need my undivided attention, it was a lot easier when I was a selfish bachelor but things changed for the better, I just have to learn how to juggle, which I know millions of people before me have done.

Hopefully I will get some actual drawing progress to report on soon, in the mean time, it'll be an adjusting process on learning how to be a good daddy AND making time to be a good artist...if anyone has tips, please send them! Maybe a solo trip to the cabin for a few days of serious drawing time is in order, but the question is how do I approach Debbie with this idea!!

Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out, thanks for reading the ramblings of a happy new dad, but frustrated old artist!!

Happy holidays!!